INFLATION further slowed in April to 1.4 percent, the Philippine Statistics Authority said yesterday.
The April clip was slower than the 1.8 percent rate in March, and meant that the average inflation for the first four months of the year was 2.0 percent. It was also within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ forecast range of 1.3 to 2.1 percent.
PSA Undersecretary and National Statistician Dennis Mapa said the slower inflation last month was mainly due to slower increases in the prices of food, as well as the decreases in fuel prices.
“Food inflation at the national level further eased to 0.7 percent in April 2025 from 2.3 percent in the previous month. In April 2024, food inflation was higher at 6.3 percent,” the PSA said.
He noted that the average price of regular milled rice went down P44.45 per kilo in April from P46.09 in March. The average price of well-milled rice also went down to P50.54 April from P52.25 the previous month, he said.
Slower inflation rates were also seen for vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking bananas and pulses at 2.3 percent during the month from 6.9 percent in March 2025, and fish and other seafood at 4.3 percent in April 2025 from 5.5 percent in the previous month.
He also noted the faster year-on-year decrease in the transport index at 2.1 percent during the month from a 1.1 percent annual drop in March 2025.
The official noted, however, that housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels kept inflation up this month. Inflation for the said commodity group was at 2.9 percent.
Electricity inflation, in particular, went up to 5.4 percent, from -0.7 percent in March, while water inflation went up to 6.3 percent from 5.9 percent the month prior. Mapa said the PSA will be tracking, among others, how electricity rates will be moving in May.
Core inflation, which strips out food and energy items that prone to wild swings in prices, was steady at 2.2 percent in April – the same rate it was in March. The PSA noted that in April 2024, core inflation rate was faster at 3.2 percent.
Inflation however was faster at 2.4 percent in the National Capital Region compared to the rest of the country. The PSA said this was due to faster increases in the costs of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 5.1 percent during the month from 2.2 percent in March 2025.
Mapa said the April print is the lowest seen since the 1.2 inflation rate in November 2019.
The Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) said the low inflation rate shows that government’s policy interventions to keep commodity prices down are working.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), for its part, said risks to inflation remain broadly balanced from 2025 to 2027. (ABS-CBN News)
